M \ I KKIAL CULTURE '■'> 



while the upper is of soft leather, the sides and mouth 

 of which are edged by two and three rows of beads 

 respectively. This seems to be an unusual form for 

 the Blackfool and rare in other collections; while the 

 related form, a large rounded bag, frequently encount- 

 ered in Dakota and Assiniboin collections has not been 

 observed among the northern group of tribes. The 

 Blackfoot collection contains two small, flat rectangular 

 cases with fringes. One of these was said to have been 

 made for a mirror, the other for matches. However, 

 such cases were formerly used by many tribes for 

 carrying the ration ticket issued by the government. 

 Their distribution seems to have been general in the 

 Plains. 



Some tribes used a long double saddle bag, highly 

 decorated and fringed. There was usually a slit at 

 one side for the horn of the saddle. So far, these have 

 been reported for the Blackfoot, Sarsi, Crow, Dakota 

 and Cheyenne. They are mentioned as common in 

 the Missouri area by Larpenteur, who implies that 

 the shape is copied after those used by whites. Morice 

 credits the Carrier of the Mackenzie culture area with 

 similar bags used on dogs. 



It will be noted that in style and range of bags and 

 pouches, the Village group of these Indians (p. 19) tends 

 to stand apart from the other groups much more dis- 

 tinctly than the intermediate tribes of the west, for 

 between the latter and the typical Plains tribes, there 

 are few marked differences. 



